Amazing video of the power of chi

Update: I’ve updated the link to the video, since the old one was removed, as pointed out in a comment below

I was told about this video by a friend of mine who studies traditional chinese medicine and qi-gong. In the school where she studies she was shown a video where a group of american journalists in China, I think, had to visit a local healer, since one of them had some acute problem with his eye.

The healer used the acupuncture technique to heal the man. The recovery was fast. They then got interested in the man and his abilities and started to ask him to show what this Chi (Qi) power is. The healer demonstrated that he can produce “electricity”-like force from inside his body and demonstrated it to them.

But the most amazing thing was as he ignited sheets of newspaper right there only with the power of his chi. Note also that when asked how he learned his power he answered “Meditation every day” and 18 years of study.

4 Comments

Topher Cooper / April 20, 2007

If this was the demonstration from “Ring of Fire” I’m not surprised it was removed. That is commercial footage (shown on the PBS series Adventure) which took something like 15 years to produce. The clip is impressive enough that it was used as part of the series title sequence. Most of it was filmed in Indonesia.

It is, I’m afraid, easy to fake. Essentially a fuse (some very different types can be used) hidden in the crumpled paper. Traditional healers frequently see confidence in their abilities an important part of their stock in trade. Some of them (NOT a blanket condemnation — or a condemnation at all for that matter) feel no qualms about fake demonstrations to promote that confidence. There is a different cultural attitude here (not that different, western doctors have been known to prescribe placebos — they believe, likely correctly, that it is best for their patients). In some cases, its not really meant to be taken literally, its understood as a mythic metaphor and a demonstration of the practitioners skill *in invoking that metaphor*.

Note: I am strenuously *not* saying “You can’t trust them foreigners”. I am saying that “You can’t trust your own cultural assumptions and values” when dealing with people from a radically different culture.

han chow / May 8, 2011

I have seen first hand the amazing power of the human mind and body. Great masters of martial arts which kill very easily but also heal. Video most likely removed to hide true human power or at request of practitioner. In case such as these, not all attention is wanted attention.

I believe this clip is from a documentary called Ring of Fire, Part 3: East of Krakatoa. I searched for this film for years and finally found it! There is a lot of cool stuff that he does on camera and as long as the film crew wasn’t paid to act a certain way, it appears genuine. The acupuncurist also explains his ‘power’ and demonstrates it very well.